PI spotlight: Ryan Fries

Ryan Fries, associate professor and graduate program director in the Department of Civil Engineering at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE), has worked on many ICT/IDOT projects, including the following: 

• R27-064: Development of a Highway Incident Management Operational and Training Guide (Phase 1)
• R27-090: Investigation of Contributing Factors of Wrong-Way Driving on Freeways
• R27-118: Development of a Highway Incident Management Operational and Training Guide (Phase 2)
• R27-119: Real-Time Information Dissemination Requirements for Illinois per New Federal Rules (in progress)

The highway incident management and wrong-way driving studies were recognized with IDOT/ICT High Impact Project awards in 2012 and 2014, respectively.

A licensed Professional Engineer, Fries received his Ph.D. from Clemson University. He has taught civil engineering at SIUE since 2008 and has industry experience with firms in Delaware. His research interests include intelligent transportation systems, traffic operations, and transportation security.

Recently, Fries was awarded the SIUE Paul Simon Teacher-Scholar Award, and he received the SIUE Teaching Recognition Award in March 2013. He is also the recipient of the American Society of Civil Engineers 2011 ExCEEd New Faculty Excellence in Teaching Award and the Chi Epsilon James M. Robbins Excellence in Teaching Award (Central District).

Fries is a member of the Advanced Technologies Committee in the American Society of Civil Engineers’ Transportation and Development Institute and is a member of the Transportation Research Board’s Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Computing Applications Committee. He also is the SIUE campus representative for the American Society of Engineering Education.

In addition to these accomplishments, Fries co-authored a textbook titled Transportation Infrastructure Security Utilizing Intelligent Transportation Systems, published by John Wiley and Sons in 2008.